WISCONSIN/MONTANA
SNAP Wisconsin
President and Rector of St. Lawrence Seminary High School being investigated for sex assault of a minor in Montana
[with copy of the email]
CONTACT
John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director, 414.336.8575
According to Capuchin officials (see email posted below) Fr. Dennis Druggan, a Capuchin priest who is the President and Rector of St. Lawrence Seminary High School in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin, has been removed from his post and is under investigation for sexually assaulting a minor 25 years ago in Montana. The alleged assault or assaults occurred at the Capuchin operated St. Labre Indian School in Ashland Montana and was reported to criminal authorities in Rosebud County in June. According to the Capuchins, authorities say the alleged criminal activity is outside the old Montana criminal statute of limitations on child sex crimes. Capuchin officials say they are now investigating the abuse.
St. Lawrence seminary, which Druggan operates and lives at, is a boarding school for minors and located in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The seminary is one of the few such boarding school for youngsters seeking the priesthood or religious life and run by clergy left in the United States.
St. Lawrence became a national story in the early and mid-1990’s after dozens of allegations of child sexual abuse were reported concerning several Capuchins who were living at the seminary. In 1995, a civil RICO, or organized racketeering, case was filed against the Capuchin Order but the suit was dropped after Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling barring all civil cases against religious organizations and officials for covering up criminal acts of rape and child sex assault, citing the first amendment of the US Constitution.
Druggan is the second Capuchin from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee under investigation for criminal acts of abuse. Fr. Matthew Gottchalk, a well-known Milwaukee Capuchin priest, was recently transferred to Detroit after abuse reports filed into the Milwaukee Archdiocese federal bankruptcy. According to the Milwaukee DA, at least one of those reports alleged criminal conduct.
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